Hear Her Sports

Aifric Keogh started rowing in 2006 and has been a member of the High-Performance team for several years. Aifric studied Food Microbiology in UCC and is a member of UCC Rowing Club. Aifric’s highlights include winning the Junior 8s at the Irish Rowing Championships in 2008 and beating two-time World Champion, Sanita Puspure, in a 30-minute erg test. In 2020, Aifric won Bronze at the European Rowing Championships in Poznan, competing in the Women’s Four and went on to win Silver at the 2021 European Rowing Championships in Varese. Aifric was part of the crew that qualified the Women’s Four at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne. Aifric’s hometown is Na Forbacha, Galway. She just won a bronze medal in the Women’s Four at the Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics.

Sam Moore recently joined University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Exercise and Sport Science graduate school as a research fellow under Dr. Abbie Smith Ryan in the Applied Nutrition & Exercise Physiology Lab. Prior to Carolina, Sam was the Director of Sport Science and Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at NC State from 2019-2021. Her responsibilities included designing and implementing training programs for women's soccer and volleyball, along with the application of menstrual cycle based periodization and female athlete performance strategies. Before NCSU, Sam served as the Volleyball Sport Science Intern at University of Utah where she implemented strategic periodization schemes for indoor and sand volleyball. As a dual sport athlete in volleyball and track & field, Sam competed for two years at the University of Portland before transferring to Western Oregon University. She collected All-GNAC honors in the heptathlon, recorded a top-10 all-time finish in the pentathlon for WOU, and was named to

Erin Jackson is a speedskater and scholar from Ocala, Florida. She has been a roller skater for as long as she can remember, going on to pursue inline speedskating (2002), roller derby (2012), and long track speedskating (2017). Erin is a member of Team USA/U.S. National Team for all three sports.  In 2015, Erin graduated cum laude from the University of Florida Honors Program with a BS in Materials Science & Engineering. Two years later she made the transition from inline skating to speedskating on ice, where she quickly qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Erin currently lives in Salt Lake City, UT where she is training for the next Olympic Games. Erin also earned an AS in Computer Science from Salt Lake Community College in 2020 and is working toward an AS in Exercise Science/Kinesiology.

Pooja Kalyan is an eighteen-year-old from Fayetteville, Arkansas. She started skating when she was six at The Jones Center in Springdale, Arkansas and continued to train there full-time during the school year until the summer of 2019. In her younger and teenage years, Pooja traveled to Tulsa, Los Angeles, and Chicago for short durations during the school year and spent the summers away from home for more training opportunities. She now trains full-time in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and her primary coach is Tom Zakrajsek. Some career highlights include US Junior silver medalist, US novice bronze medalist, and multiple top 10 finishes both nationally and internationally. She is a graduating high school senior at Stanford Online High School after transferring from her brick-and-mortar school in Fayetteville in 11th grade. She will be attending Brown University and plans to start in the fall of 2022. Outside of skating and school, Pooja has three dogs, loves to bake, and enjoys yoga, hiking, and reading.

Grace Gonzales is one of five runner-founders of the elite distance running team, Angel City Elite, based in Los Angeles and sponsored by Brooks. ACE’s mission is to bridge the disparity gap of BIPOC representation in the running community, raise awareness, empower, educate, and inspire by creating a supportive platform and establishing partnerships in LA and surrounding communities. In addition to being an elite runner, Grace is an educator and yoga facilitator. Her family is filled with runners so the sport has been a part of Grace's life from a very young age. She raced in college but after an injury she stopped running competitively as she earned a graduate degree in teaching and pursued a non-running career. She missed training seriously however so picked it back up again about four years later. One of Grace’s career highlights is the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Atlanta, which she ran in 2:47. Her PR is 2:41:52

The legendary, Muffet McGraw was the Notre Dame women’s basketball head coach for 33 seasons. In two of those seasons (2001 and 2018) she won the national championship trophy. McGraw is also known for her response to being asked about women in leadership at a 2019 Women’s Final Four press conference. We talk about NCAA weight room debacle, her new book Expect More, using your voice, how to make sports great for young girls, and the brilliance of the next generation. McGraw was the 13th female coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. She was also inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014. Coach McGraw’s career included an impressive 936 career wins, which ranks sixth all-time among Division I coaches. Her nine Final Four appearances rank as the fifth most all-time. All totaled, McGraw’s teams have qualified for 26 NCAA Tournaments, earning 67 tournament wins along the way. Since retiring from coaching, Coach McGra

Professional Show Jumper, Gaby Reutter was born in Santiago, Chile and began riding at only four years old. When she was 17, she moved to the United States to pursue a career in professional show jumping. Gaby has multiple top finishes in international FEI classes, from U25 Grand Prix divisions to victory in an FEI 4-star event. She currently campaigns her two show jumpers, Atticus Diamant and Maharees Rock and has a number of developing prospects imported from Europe and Chile. In 2018, she received her certificate of capability for the Pan American Games following a top 3 finish in the FEI 3-star 1.50 meter. Her sights are now set on the 2023 Pan Am Games and to one day be the second woman in history to represent Chile at the Olympic Games.

Lacrosse superstar Dempsey Arsenault graduated from Boston College in 2019. There, she was one of the “Big Three” —a trifecta of women’s lacrosse players who were known for dominating the field and leading the BC team to three consecutive NCAA National Championship Finals. Just in 2019 Dempsey was the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League Champion & Game Most Valuable Player, led the in total points, was the number two Draft Pick in the WPLL, selected for the NCAA all-Tournament Team, voted the Midfielder of the year by both the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association. Also in 2019 Dempsey was a Finalist for the Tewaaraton, an annual award for the most outstanding American college lacrosse player. Going forward, Dempsey will be playing with the new Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse League from July 19 to August 22, 2021 and is a member of Team USA.

Erica Vanstone is the Executive Director of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), the international governing body for the sport of roller derby. The WFTDA's mission is to revolutionize women-led and gender-expansive-led spaces in sport. With an undergraduate degree from NYU Film, Erica used her communications and production experience in founding WFTDA.tv, the WFTDA's first broadcast program. She later earned a Master’s of Science in Sports Business from Temple University, and has secured partnerships with organizations such as ESPN, UN Women, Twitch.tv, and the BBC. Most recently, in 2020, Erica worked with community epidemiologists to develop comprehensive COVID-19 Guidelines for Return-to-Play featured on Samantha Bee's "Full Frontal," and established the ART Project, an organization-wide anti-racism re-envisioning process to dismantle racism in the WFTDA. Based in Philadelphia, PA, she skates for Philly Roller Derby, and coaches in the organization's youth program, Philly Roller Derby Juniors

Team USA Cyclocross rider Clara Honsinger grew up riding mountain bikes on the trails behind her home in Oregon and started racing bikes as a teenager with the guidance of a high school teacher. After moving to Portland, OR for school, she discovered cyclocross and was immediately hooked on the physical and technical challenge of the sport. In 2019, she won the US Elite Women National Championships as a first-year elite and then joined the Cannondale CyclocrossWorld.com team. In the 20-21 season she earned two UCI Cyclocross World Cup Podiums and finished fourth overall in the World Cup final standings. Clara ended her stellar season with a fourth-place finish at the World Championships. Clara will be racing on the road with Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank in 2021. Beyond cycling, she is finishing her undergraduate degree in Nutrition at Oregon State University and enjoys exploring farmer's markets and neighborhood gardens in her free time.

Khadijah Diggs is a Triathlete on TEAM USA, a mother, and works full time. Her mission is to promote a positive image of Muslim women and Islam in general through sport. Khadijah competed in her first Triathlon in 2012 as part of an initiative for her Sorority. Since then, she has entered more than 40 events and successfully completed all but one of them. She is currently ranked in the top 5% of her age group by Ironman Triathlon and is also the first African American woman to represent Team USA in Long Course Triathlon and the first Muslim to represent Team USA in any multisport event.

CEO and Founder of Just Women’s Sports, Haley Rosen received a BA and an MA from Stanford University, where she played as a midfielder for the Cardinal soccer team. After a brief professional soccer career in both the US and abroad, Haley returned to the Bay Area, where she first worked in tech before founding Just Women’s Sports. Her goal is for the digital platform is to create equal representation of women in sports. Like Hear Her Sports, Haley often cites the stat that 44% of athletes are women and only 4% of sports media coverage. In addition to talking about the state of women’s sports right now, the incredible opportunities in the field, and how exciting and marvelous we find female athletes, Haley shares her personal stories of a soccer career cut short due to injury.

Ice Hockey super star Brianna Decker has been playing hockey at the International level for almost twenty years. She generously shares stories of playing ice hockey with her brothers, USA Hockey team camps, lessons from the Olympics, and the future for young hockey players. Brianna represented USA in two Olympic Games where she won gold in 2018 and silver in 2014, played in seven World Championships (winning gold in six of those) and ten Four Nations Cups and one Twelve Nations Invitational Tournament Series. She is also a two-time winner of the Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year Award and two-time CWHL Clarkson Cup winner. In 2016 Brianna helped the Boston Pride win the Isobel Cup, was two-time NWHL Most Valuable Player, 2012 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, and played on the University of Wisconsin Division 1 National Championship team in 2011. Brianna also coaches for U.S. Under-18 Women's National Team and created the Brianna Decker Endowment for Girls Hockey. Brianna is currently playing with the Profe

With Dr. Kirstin Lauritzen we talk basics of the immune system, the gut, how male and female immune systems differ, and what you can do to build resiliency. Dr K is a Functional Medicine Practitioner in Wilsonville, Oregon. Her doctorate is in Chiropractic and she holds a Masters in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. She is the founder of NW functional Medicine - a health care clinic that incorporates massage, Chiropractic, Rehab and Functional Medicine. She is also the founder of DrKirstin.com where she shares current research, articles and recipes to encourage and inspire athletes to go further with their performance and health. Dr K specializes in helping female athletes fix and prevent nutrient deficiencies so they can optimize their performance, longevity in their sport, reduce risk of injury and promote a healthy body. She is a Triathlete and is currently training for the Coure D’Alene Ironman!

Brandie Wilkerson started playing beach volleyball in 2013 after being inspired while watching the 2012 London Olympics. While she had a later start than most, her successful indoor volleyball career as a 4-time All-Star opposite hitter at York University helped her quickly adjust to the game. She made her first AVP appearance in 2017 working her way from a low-ranked qualifier team in Huntington to, eventually, the Manhattan Beach Open Finals. From there, she’s posed a threat in the Main Draw, both on AVP and the FIVB World Tour, winning FIVB World’s Best Blocker in 2018. Her team is currently ranked #7 in the world and plans to compete for Canada in the Tokyo Olympics.  Brandie Wilkerson was born in Lausanne, Switzerland to a native Swiss mother and a Texan father. She was raised in Toronto, Canada. As a multi-racial female athlete, Brandie has fallen in love with the power beach volleyball has in bringing a deeply diverse world together in a fierce, fun, competitive, entertaining, and empowering way that

Open water swimmer Catherine Breed swims fast for long distances in lakes and oceans. She holds four open water records, two USMS national records, and has solid goals for many more. Catherine raced (in a pool), very successfully, for both UC Berkeley and the US National team. After graduating, she joined the Dolphin Club in San Francisco. On September 21st she completed the 25 mile swim across Monterey Bay, which she did in 12 hours and 42 minutes, setting a new record. She is only the sixth person (five of which were women) to make the swim. Her first ultra-marathon swim was crossing Lake Tahoe in 2017, where she beat both the men’s and the women’s records. Just a few months ago in October she was part of a record-breaking relay team in the Uberman Triathlon. Catherine is passionate about swimming and about making it accessible to all people. The water is a calming place for her and a safe haven. She believes everyone deserves that opportunity regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status.

Talya Minsberg is an Assistant Sports Editor at New York Times. Previously, Talya worked as an editor on NYT’s Social team and for Special Projects. During that time, she spearheaded the newsroom’s social coverage at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Looking for great stories at the intersection of sports and society, she writes about a range of men’s and women’s sports. In the episode, Talya shares topics and athletes she’s looking forward to following in 2021, athletic drive, and advice for young journalists. Talya is a runner and surfer.

Megan Fisher is a Multiple Medal Winner in Paralympic Cycling at both London and Rio Olympics and is a 10x World Champion. She’s now a Certified Athletic Trainer, specializing in Sports Medicine with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. Meg also has credentials as USA Cycling Level 3 Coach and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). But Meg’s road to success has not been easy. In 2002, she was involved in a tragic car accident that resulted in the amputation of her left leg, significant brain injury, and a week in a coma on a ventilator. Meg’s life’s work has been to help others unlock the potential in their bodies and develop resilience so that the stresses of time and age are less diminishing.

In 2015, Artist and Rock Climber Leslie Kim started creating illustrations inspired by her travels to different rock climbing areas and soon combined that artwork wither love for climbing and the community of climbing. She launched her apparel company, Dynamite Starfish. She lives by the motto: "Try hard. Have fun. Care about the things you love." Hear Her Sports podcast is long-form intimate profiles of female athletes breaking boundaries, speaking up and living with power & confidence.

Kriste is a trail runner, adventure runner, meditation teacher, and also a speaker, writer, and media producer. She coaches women in trail running along the Front Range, leads healing hikes, and facilitates retreats which empower participants to develop skills that will serve them both in nature and in daily life. Kriste is also the founder of Black Women’s Alliance a social network centered around the wellness and healing of Black women in body and mind and has recently developed an online video series Moving Conversations where she connects with spiritual teachers, wise women, healers, and creatives about ways to engage self-care within communities hardest hit by the pandemic. Hear Her Sports podcast is long-form intimate profiles of female athletes breaking boundaries, speaking up and living with power & confidence.